Mandakini: happy new year's day!

1-1-11...can you believe it? another year has gone by. and what a great year it was! last night, we had our family tradition...it's pretty boring, but we always have a ton of fun. we make the kids a dinner consisting completely of appetizers, give them fake champagne, and change the clock to say midnight. that way, they get their own little new years all for themselves.

then off to bed they go, and chris and i get to celebrate together. we make our own appetizers, and grab a few cocktails.

then we start with our little game. throughout the night, we ask each other three questions. basically reflective questions like, "what was your favorite memory from 2010?" we answer them, and then we give each other a gift for the house...something that we can use for our new year's resolutions. we do the questions intermittently throughout the night, with the last one just after midnight. this year's gifts: new pillows (we both got them...but i think we will be returning chris'...they are hard as rocks!); a family board game called "camp"; the tupperware that has lids that connect to the bottoms (no more lost lids!); new door mats; and tons of storage for all of our legos, toys, clothes, power cords, and miscellaneous papers and bills!

we usually make a huge dinner, but for some reason, the crackers and cheese and olives filled us up. so here is what we would have had!

wild mushroom risotto with parmesan and blue cheese...perhaps this will be tonight's dinner instead!

and of course we also filled up on the addicting "christmas crack"~ recipe here if you dare want to make it. SO addicting * and SO easy to make!!

and of course we do the obligatory countdown, champagne and kiss at midnight!

and here we are (ok, mostly me), being silly, taking self portraits in the mirror! even though we don't go out, we still dress up for each other...at least for one drink! ; ) i decided to go all print...why not, it's new years!